1007 – The first mention of a town named Watford appears in the Anglo-Saxon charter
1100 – Nicholas Breakspear, the first and only Englishman to become pope, is born in Bedmond in Abbots Langley
1279 – Eleanor of Castile, queen consort of Edward I, spends two years building Kings Langley Palace
1556 – Sir Charles Morrison, MP for Tavistock, finishes building Cassiobury House
1642 – The Watford Volunteers make a stand against the Royalist Army during the Civil War
1655 – Sedgwick’s Brewery begins as a small brewhouse owned by William Smith in Watford High Street
1678 – The Duke of Monmouth James Scott, illegitimate son of King Charles II, builds Moor Park mansion near Rickmansworth
1693 – The first version of Benskins Brewery is founded by John Pope
1798 – The Grand Junction Canal is built through Watford
1837 – The first part of the railway line opens in Watford
1838 – Watford Workhouse opens
1841 – Hertfordshire gets its first constabulary
1858 – Watford Junction opens
1863 – The first edition of the Watford Observer goes on sale
1886 – Watford Football Club is formed as Watford Rovers
1890 – Odhams Press, a publishing company, is founded
1902 – The people of Watford riot when King Edward VII’s coronation celebrations are postponed
1908 – Watford Palace Theatre opens
1908 – C.S. Lewis starts as a pupil at Wynyard, a boarding school in Watford
1911 – Watford Cinema Palace opens
1913 – A small factory is built in Kings Langley to manufacture Ovaltine
1913 – Croxley Green train station is destroyed in a fire started by suffragettes
1914 – Benskins Brewery sponsors the purchase of Vicarage Road for Watford Football Club
1919 – Sun Engraving Co. moves into premises on Whippendell Road
1925 – The Peace Memorial Hospital opens
1925 – The Metropolitan Railway Company builds a branch to Watford
1927 – Following an auction of its interior fittings, Cassiobury House is demolished
1928 – Watford’s war memorial, featuring three bronze statues, by local resident Mary Bromet, is placed outside the Peace Memorial Hospital
1930 – The former Watford Workhouse becomes a hospital, later to be called Watford General Hospital
1938 – Watford Colosseum opens as the Watford Town Hall Assembly Rooms
1939 – 30,000 evacuated children pass through Watford on their way to safety in the countryside
1939 – Watford Town Hall is completed
1940 – The first bombs of World War II fall on Watford, in Oxhey Woods and Moor Park and Rickmansworth golf courses
1941 – The Mosquito fighter bomber goes into production at Leavesden Aerodrome
1948 – A new fire station opens in Upton House in Watford, equipped with a horse-drawn steam fire engine
1970 – Cassiobury gates are destroyed as part of the widening of Rickmansworth Road
1970 – The old pumping station is converted into a theatre, the Pump House
1977 – Elton John purchases Watford Football Club
1981 – Watford Museum opens in the former Benskins Brewery building
1992 – The Harlequin Shopping Centre opens
1996 – The Peace Hospice is opened by Princess Michael of Kent
2000 – The site of Leavesden Aerodrome is acquired by Warner Bros.
2004 – The Grove reopens as a luxury hotel and spa
2013 – The Warner Bros. Studio Tour officially opens
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